Draft Cruelty
April 15th, 2022
Bucs backup QB Kyle Trask.
It’s unfair to grade a team’s draft and or rookies after one season, unless it’s a fast-impact draft like the Bucs’ draft in 2015 or 2020, or a true rookie superstar.
But it’s still a fun and interesting exercise.
Joe suspects general managers hate seeing and hearing evaluations of their drafts before players can develop and, sometimes, before they can even get a chance.
A Kyle Trask lover emailed Joe the other day all worked up. Trask, the final pick of the second round 2021, rode the Bucs’ bench last season and never was active on game day. One of Joe’s responses to the guy claiming Trask is a disrespected superstar sleeper was asking the guy why he is so sure Trask is better than Texans starter Davis Mills, who was drafted three picks later and finished last season with 16 touchdowns and 10 picks in 11 starts.
See how unfair it is to compare Mills and Trask. One guy got a shot and the other didn’t. But it’s also folly to start pounding tables insisting Trask is better than Mills. Did the Bucs draft the wrong quarterback? The answer is years away.
Moving down a couple of rounds, the Bucs drafted receiver/returner Jaelon Darden in Round 4 out of North Texas. He look overwhelmed as a rookie. Interestingly, the mighty Rams had the very next pick on board and chose University of Central Arkansas cornerback Robert Rochell. He’s a long corner in the mold of Bucs general manager Jason Licht and actually looked pretty good as part of a strong defensive backs unit.
Injuries forced Rochell into action and he played 31 percent of the Rams’ defensive snaps and finished with 14 tackles, four passes defensed and one interception. He’s very well liked in Los Angeles.
Did the Bucs blow it by not drafting Rochell? How much different might this year’s offseason approach be if the Bucs had a second-year corner on the rise?
See how cruel and fun it is to play the what-if game with the draft?
April 15th, 2022 at 11:11 am
Interesting twist using ‘cruel’ and ‘fun’ in the same sentence. There’s another word for that, but we won’t go there.
April 15th, 2022 at 11:11 am
So true Joe! What if TB never un- retired this year? What if Bledso never got injured and played for years in NE? What if another team drafted an under-rated 6th round pick from Michigan and never gave him a chance? The list goes on and on …
April 15th, 2022 at 11:11 am
Yes. Especially since hindsight is 20-20 which the critiques have and the GM’s do not.
April 15th, 2022 at 11:11 am
The league is littered with players the Bucs, or any of the other 31 teams, could have/should have picked had they had the use of a crystal ball.
April 15th, 2022 at 11:27 am
What if ?
In 2018, Bucs don’t trade down with Buffalo and instead of Vita Vea they picked Josh Allen….Everything would’ve been different
April 15th, 2022 at 11:31 am
0-0, 0 yards, 0TD, 0INT = Tom Brady
Trask is in good company.
April 15th, 2022 at 11:33 am
What if AB accompanied Dorothy and the tin man to OZ and got a brain ?
April 15th, 2022 at 11:46 am
Kentucky- You have to ‘want’ the brain. LOL!
Boy, the ‘what ifs’ this team has missed on! In fairness though, we’re not the only ones.
April 15th, 2022 at 11:48 am
I know that I’m biased but I think that we have had more what-if’s than most teams. Just as a for instance we could have picked Junior Seau (he said at the time that he wouldn’t play for us) or Emmitt Smith back in 1990 instead of drafting massive bust Keith McCants! A huge part of our history could have changed dramatically if we had taken one of those dudes.
April 15th, 2022 at 11:52 am
The more I hear of Brady the less I want him to play for the Bucs this year ? Yes another SuperBowl would be great, but this is just a practice year for him before Miami and I wish they would trade him for Tua a pick so the Bucs can start building the future instead of one year of Tom and the drama. I’m probably wrong for saying this, but I just think it’s time to start building for the future and not a make Tom happy. If he had a contract for another year then I would be for it, but just the season and he’s obviously gone and also I think Gronk will take this year off to heal and they will reunite in Miyeyo
April 15th, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Draft Olave….trade up with the pats….im telling you…listen to me brothers
April 15th, 2022 at 12:08 pm
Since he was a 6th round pick, every team had multiple shots at Tom Brady.
If we drafted Mills he’d probably would not have been activated either.
We can only hope that the collective experience and expertise of Licht, BA, BL Brady, Christensen & Moore’s with the selection of Trask will pay off.
Just keep Trask out of the parlors & Mons……hire him a chauffeur give him the clipboard and await his eventual arrival to the active roster.
April 15th, 2022 at 12:17 pm
I agree with Joe, that you can’t properly grade a draft until two or three years out. That being said, the Trask Pick was a mistake from jump. Brady was under contract, and no one expect him to “retire”. The pick should’ve been used on defense. Even if Brady had stayed retired, or been traded, Trask was a reach. If you really wanted to draft the QB of the future, you should’ve traded up for one of those top guys. That would’ve made more sense than reaching for Trask.
April 15th, 2022 at 12:39 pm
What if GB gave up on A-Rod after one year or the Oilers/Titians on McNair? I will judge him at the end of his career!
April 15th, 2022 at 12:48 pm
I remember Bret Farve was in the same situation in Atlanta how did that work for Atlanta ? They had a hall of fame quarterback on their roster and didn’t know it . And he was also drafted in second round after his last year in college. Now I’m not saying he’s going to be a garutean hall of famer but you never know. Atlanta let Bret Farve go and the rest was history. I hope the bucs don’t make the same mistake without giving Trask a real shot like the Falcons did to Farve!!
April 15th, 2022 at 12:54 pm
Trade Darden to Miami for Flipper.
April 15th, 2022 at 1:19 pm
@GOB
Spot on. Wasted pick on Trask. You try to win now and that’s it. No more long term plans in the NFL. You push your chips to the middle of the table and try to win NOW. I.e. Bucs and Rams
April 15th, 2022 at 1:20 pm
Brady is why we’re super bowl favorites this year.
I don’t give a rat’s patootie if he dons a space helmet and plays on the moon next year as long as we win THIS year.
April 15th, 2022 at 1:37 pm
Sort of like drafting Justin Evans instead of Alvin Kamara
April 15th, 2022 at 2:16 pm
Reaching for Trask? Wasted a pick on Trask? Trask is a bust?
The entire point of the article is that you simply can’t make that determination, yet
I’m quite sure you can find some NE fat were not happy with their 6th round compensatory pick in 2000.
April 15th, 2022 at 2:32 pm
Hindsight is 20/20 — everyone was pretty excited on draft day about Darden
Hard to even evaluate him cause he couldn’t stay on his feet. Not sure what the issue was there.
April 15th, 2022 at 2:39 pm
Lots of ex post facto G.M.’s on this site.
It’s like claiming you would never have chosen to eat at a restaurant after the reviews are in and the food has been proclaimed rotten.
April 15th, 2022 at 3:29 pm
This is one where WVBuc can justifiably be cruel as Rochell was a favorite last year. Jaylawn Darden was someone not on my radar. If Jason Licht wants to avoid a similar misstep this season, I’ll gladly make my services available.
April 15th, 2022 at 3:42 pm
Like I said they always let the good ones go lol which he is watch his feet and arm work
April 15th, 2022 at 3:55 pm
Gabbert will be the backup as long as Brady is on the team. He’s his Brian Hoyer. A guy who he trusts as his second set of eyes. A guy who he can bounce ideas off on the sideline because Gabbert knows the offense very well. Gabbert might not the popular pick for the backup, but he adds so much in the QB room, and most importantly, Brady trusts him.
April 15th, 2022 at 4:13 pm
Need to trade down a couple times. Don’t have enough picks to address needs. Unless they decide to do something else in FA. Could use at least one maybe two CBs, another S, at least one more OL, another DE, another DT, maybe another RB, maybe another WR & then depending on Gronkowski maybe another TE. They’re not gonna have enough picks to address all those needs so they’re either gonna have to trade down a couple times & get more picks or they’re gonna have to go out in FA some more. Please do not trade up & give away your picks. Bad enough when you have to trade away draft picks. Every pick matters. Look at Brady. Perfect example.
April 15th, 2022 at 4:16 pm
Olave
April 15th, 2022 at 5:30 pm
Kentucky Buc Says:
“What if AB accompanied Dorothy and the tin man to OZ and got a brain ?”
.
.
I doubt he would have ever made it all the way to Oz. He would have gotten sidetracked and settled down in Munchkinland as king of mental midgets.
April 15th, 2022 at 5:35 pm
Hey, I know Darden really sucked last year!! The man could not make a move without slipping on the turf!! Hopefully he gets some new cleats and a winners attitude this year. He did have two really sweet returns. But way more that went nowhere!! This reminds me so much of Matt Gay!! His rookie year he played here in Tampa and sucked so bad!!! Then he goes to LA Rams and he’s kicking 55 yarders like extra points!! JUST SAYIN’. Maybe just maybe Darden will surprise us this year!! I sure hope so!!!!!
April 15th, 2022 at 7:18 pm
“Skates” Darden isn’t NFL caliber and seems a bit scared. Maybe he’ll improve a little bit I’m dubious.
April 15th, 2022 at 7:53 pm
@Tony, not opposed to trading down. The bucs need as many picks as possible. It would give them more bullets to hopefully land a productive rookie. As they sit right now, they need to gamble with picks anyway. Why not get a few more swings.
April 15th, 2022 at 8:03 pm
If we trade up for a receiver forget olave I want Jameson Williams hands down
April 15th, 2022 at 8:20 pm
Trading down is never the way Jameson Williams or Jordan Davis should be our picks for the people that say we need a inside pass rusher not another run stopper well think about this I trust aour coaches can help him with that along with our players but you are crazy if you guys think that having vea and Davis next to each other doesn’t help our pass rush they both will command at least double teams which leaves our edge rushers and blitz players great match ups and if you don’t double one of them they have the ability to push the middle of the oline right into the qbs lap and then final thing was his conditioning he had those problems at 363 he has already got down to 341 and vea had the same problem when we got him but we fixed it so I think we can do it again also people talking about olave go watch Jameson Williams tape way better choice at receiver then olave
April 15th, 2022 at 10:22 pm
Once again with the caveat being that I have no idea what the hopes and expectations for Trask were when Licht pulled the ticket last year I will say this. I assume our brain trust had a strong notion and good reasons for the decision. I will remind the impatient to check out how long Aaron Rodgers sat behind Brett Favre while he flirted with retirement before finally bowing out. In that case I heard from more than one Packer’s fan that Rodgers was going to do well. This is dramatically different from what I am hearing about Trask at this time from fans and local analysts. In this case most are uncertain in there evaluations. We are all still in the dark.
April 16th, 2022 at 6:53 am
Here we go again with the joe hating Gator player BS
April 16th, 2022 at 11:35 am
Untimely injuries will often thrust rookies into roles before you’d like – but no one wants injuries to occur. Kyle Trask can use this time to watch, ask questions and learn from the very best… and Davis Mills could be shell-shocked and out as the starter before Trask ever gets in.
(*it’s not like that hasn’t happened before in HOU – see David Carr)
April 17th, 2022 at 12:57 am
What if… we drafted Johnny football instead of Mike Evans, Joe? It’s fun to speculate but pretending like any of us of really have a clue what trask will be when Tom Brady is on the roster is really over analyzing the situation.
April 18th, 2022 at 11:39 am
“A Kyle Trask lover …”
Did you call Jameis Winston fans “Jameis lovers”?
This site’s writers and commenters are clearly dominated by FSU-jersey-wearing-Jamoist-Winston-fans. One of the worst sites I’ve been to.